Tennis Love

Mac comes out with the worst tennis games – Smashing Tennis Review

tennislv — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:12:40 +0000

I was reading over at MacWorld about their “hot” new tennis game titled Smashing Tennis. It reminds of the days of the old NES or Sega Genesis. Do they think that replatforming an old sorry game like this should be breaking news? I don’t think so.

Smashing Tennis screenshot for the Mac

After all of these years and all the advancements in computer gaming I would expect more. If the price point was 0.99 cents on iTunes this would make sense, but $10 for your MacBook Air makes no sense.

I know that the vendor states “players will also be able to dive if they hit the ball while being slightly away from it” is great. Wouldn’t it be better if the players would get injured if they did moves like that or if they would get angry and bang their head on the racket like Mikhail Youzhny? They need to think outside of the box and come up with a game we can laugh at, not just mimick the real thing?

Here is their listing of “AMAZING” features for this game:

Family Friendly, A Game for Both Adults and Kids
1 and 2 Player Modes (no online mode……poop)
Easy and Hard Difficulty Options (is this even a feature anymore?)
Adjustable Skill Levels
Training Mode
Tournament Mode (Full version only)
3 Court Surfaces: Clay, Hard (Decoturf Blue) and Grass (what about asphalt, on the freeway?)
Realistic Physics
Blinking shadow shows where the ball will land and/or if it will be out of bounds. (WOW, this one will pull you in?)
Games are automatically saved. (another feature that will help it pull ahead of the competition….not)

I give the game 3 out of 5 stars for lack of creativity and selling us on 2D when 3D would be better. Give the demo a try here – What do you think?

Historic Tennis Clubhouse destroyed for insurance reasons

tennislv — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:04:00 +0000

The Baltimore County Club demolished its historic, but unused former tennis clubhouse in Roland Park on 12/9/2008, without communicating to a community already pissed over the club’s decision to sell 17 acres of its green space for development as a retirement community.

Tennis clubhouse destroyed, developers don't care

The club’s greats included Charles Garland, who won the men’s doubles at Wimbledon in 1920, according to a book, Michel said.

In 1969, the club held its first and last professional tennis championship at Roland Park, 10 of the world’s greatest players participated from that time period. Pancho Gonzalez defeated Roy Emerson but went on to lose to Rod Laver. Billie Jean King lost to Rosemary Cals. Moments like this from history makes the loss of the old clubhouse especially mournful who live close.

“The building has historical significance,” Spevak said.

The demolition came the same day of a meeting between representatives of the club and the Roland Park Civic League to discuss the club’s plan to sell 17 acres to the Keswick Multi-Care Center. The league opposes the sale and has asked club officials to sell the land to the league instead, so the league can preserve it from development. The league reiterated at the meeting Tuesday that it wants to buy the land, league President Phillip Spevak said.

Spevak said club officials made no mention at the meeting of their plan to tear down the clubhouse later in the day.

“We thought we had a constructive meeting,” Spevak said, adding that club officials requested the meeting in light of Mayor Sheila Dixon’s call last week for the two sides to have a continued dialogue about the land.

“They said nothing about following up the meeting with a wrecking ball,” Spevak said. “I think it’s extremely sad.”

The demolition fueled suspicion that the club has no intention of negotiating with the league.

Are their any historic buildings falling into disrepair in your community? Have you seen things get torn down because insurance companies believe they are no longer safe to insure? Should TriCare Prime & other insurance companies cancel coverage on humans once they start falling apart and aren’t used much? You tell us…..

Ernests Gulbis has withdrawn from the AAMI Classic

tennislv — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:28:51 +0000

Latvian rising star Ernests Gulbis has been withdrawn from the Kooyong field, confirming his entry in the Heineken Open field. Kooyong officials have announced Fernando Verdasco will replace Gulbis in the eight strong field after a tug-of-war over the rising star’s services.

Palmer says it is a relief as Gulbis did have the option of paying an ATP fine and sticking with the Melbourne event but has decided not to.

KooYong Tennis Tournament

This boutique tennis event, held annually at Kooyong, has become the preferred Australian Open preparation for eight of the world’s top male players. Andy Roddick is the current title holder.

The AAMI Classic is also renowned for it’s unique corporate entertainment opportunities. Melbourne’s premier event caterer, Rowland Major Events, enhances the corporate experience by providing first-class service and menu selection.

The Seven Network televises the event with over 12 hours of live, national coverage and the International Television rights were sold to seventeen countries.

Kooyong’s AAMI Classic plays an integral role in Australia’s “summer of tennis”.

Latvian Player Ernests Gulbis goes through first round in US OPEN

tennislv — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:48:01 +0000

Latvian young talent Ernests Gulbis, who last year got to the fourth round in US OPEN, yesterday won the game vs. Thomas Johansson. The first and the third set didn’t go so easy for Gulbis. The final result was 7:5, 6:1, 7:6. As we can see in the first round Johansson almost got to the tie break, but Gulbis again proved how powerful is his serve and both forehand and backhand. The next set he won easily, taking a lot of break points which led him to the third set where Thomas Johansson gathered his strength and tried to win Ernests Gulbis. Third set went very equally but in the end again Gulbis proved that he is the young and strong talent and he can show everybody how to play tennis in a really good level. If we remember the game in Wimbledon were Gulbis played against Nadal, we can see how strong Gulbis actually is. For Christ sakes he almost won Nadal! No.1 racket in the world! And last year he went as far as 4th round in the US Open, so lets wait what this year’s US Open will bring to us, what surprises it will show to us. I hope this year Gulbis get even further than the 4th round!

Full Steam Ahead for Roddick

tennislv — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:13:18 +0000

Eighth-seeded Andy Roddick, who has battled a shoulder injury this summer that led him to skip the Beijing Olympics, won his first match in straight sets. He beat Fabrice Santoro—the oldest man in the draw at 35—6-2, 6-2, 6-2.

The match ended with Santoro thinking Roddick had tried to hit him with the ball. Roddick said that wasn’t the case and he would try to seek out Santoro to clear the air.

Jankovic, Djokovic move on at US Open

tennislv — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:06:30 +0000

NEW YORK (AP)—Jelena Jankovic’s leg cramped so badly, she couldn’t take another step.

Luckily for the No. 2 seed in the U.S. Open, the agony occurred during her post-match run on the treadmill. Anyone who watched could clearly see she left about everything she had out on the court.

Jankovic outlasted Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-5 Wednesday on yet another uncharacteristically mild August day in Flushing Meadows. She planned to take a 10-minute run on the treadmill but lasted only three when pain flared in the area of a knee injury sustained at Wimbledon.

“I couldn’t go anymore,” Jankovic said. “My leg was straight and I couldn’t bend it. The muscle was in spasm and I had a lot of pain.”

Treatment with ice and stretching and massaging loosened her leg enough for her to go back to the locker room to take a shower before she spoke to reporters in a much more comfortable setting.

Until then, it was Arvidsson who made her life difficult for the better part of three hours.

Djokovic Wins Tsonga and wins the Australian Open title!

tennislv — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:06:40 +0000

Recently the men’s final ended and the new tennis star Djokovic won Tsonga. This is Djokovic’s first Australian Open title and this just shows that new players are going to be a tough thing to win for such tennis stars as Nadal and Federer and a lot of other good players. I hope you had the chance to watch the game! See ya!

Sharapova takes the Australian Open title this year!

tennislv — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:48:00 +0000

In the really fast game vs. Ana Ivanovic, Sharapova won by 7-5,6-3. A lot of tennis specialists said that the game should have been more harder for Sharapova to win because Ana is in really good physical condition, but I guess Sharapova just was better and faster and louder…lol

Djokovic beats Federer in three set match

tennislv — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:34:55 +0000

In today’s game Djokovic won Federer quite easily with the final score 7-5, 6-3, 7-6. Federer himself said that this tournament hasn’t been the best for him. Serves didn’t go so well and returns weren’t so good as well. Well, let’s not be sad about Federer, but be happy for the young Serb who has got himself in the finals together with the French player Tsonga.

Federer continues to fight!

tennislv — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:16:29 +0000

Sorry for not talking about other players and focusing more on Federer. He is the first racket in the world and it is interesting to watch how he is doing.

The game vs. T. Berdych 6-4/7-6/6-3. As you can see everything is going for Federer as usual. He doesn’t let anyone to take at least a set vs. him. Also in the game vs. J.Blake the final score was 7-5/7-6/6-4. Lets wait for the next game and see how will the world’s first racket show his strength against the new Serb talent N. Djokovic.